Television digest with AM-FM reports (Jan-Dec 1951)

/Up-to-Date Directory of the FCC, page 1. Mn this juHF — Silver Lining of the TV Freeze, page 1. Issue : jTV Construction Costs — NARTB’s Tally, page 2, (.Will They Look-&-Listen, 7-9 a.m.? page 3. New Type of TV Booster Station, page 5. Apparent Trends in Prices and Tubes, page 6. Metals Supply — Worse Before Better, page 6. Topics & Trends-Mobilization-Financial Notes, pp. 7-9. UP-TO-DATE DIRECTORY OF THE FCC: Our new directory of FCC personnel, sent to all full-service subscribers herewith (Supplement No. 56-C), should help you orient yourself in light of the considerable reorganization the Commission has undergone since our last compilation. Moreover, FCC itself hasn't issued any recent listing. An important aspect of the directory is the organization and composition of the 5 ma.i or bureaus — Broadcast, Common Carrier, Safety & Special Radio Services. Names, titles, etc. are as supplied by heads of bureaus and offices. You may notice, incidentally, the relative stability of commissionership tenures — no changes since Comr. Hennock's appointment in 1948. But rumors persist, some well-founded, some baseless, that changes are imminent. Matter of fact, you hear plenty of emphatic opinions that several commissioners, if not majority, will leave during the 1952 election year. Appended to FCC directory, we've added listing of Senators and Congressmen, with staffs, of Congressional committees handling radio legislation. Note ; Shortly after New Year's Day, we'll have ready for all subscribers an Index to Contents of 1951 Newsletters ; and full-service subscribers will receive our TV Factbook No. 14 and our 1952 AM-FM Directory. Orders for extra copies of Factbook ($2.50) and AM-FM Directory ($7.50) should be placed by subscribers now. UHF-SILYER LINING OF THE TV FREEZE: There was reason for imposition of the freeze, but no one has found any good in the way it has dragged on — for more than 3 years. Yet there's one worthwhile byproduct that can't be blinked; Uhf has risen from little more than theory to a proven art. Manufacturers have seized upon the hiatus, unwelcome as it has been, and made uhf work. Had it not been for freeze, 400-500 vhf stations in 200-300 markets might have been on air by now — and uhf would be facing almost insuperable odds. Upshot of lihf's 3-year "break" : (1) RCA-NBC's experimental Bridgeport station has been on air for 2 solid years, rebroadcasting excellent signals (from New York's WNBT) day in and day out with fewer "outages" (breakdowns), if anything, than some vhf stations. (2) GE has produced prototype klystron-powered transmitter and helical antenna good for full 200-kw ERF proposed by FCC, and others won't be far behind. (3) Virtually all tuner makers and set builders have designed units with good performance, at reasonable cost — and are champing at the bit for uhf stations. (4) FCC has amassed enough uhf propagation and interference information to fashion uhf standards and allocations with which few engineers find serious fault. Freeze's effect on station economics has also worked to sweeten uhf. With receivers concentrated in relatively few mark'ets, there has been a quick answer to question of whether TV can be profitable. It's hard to believe, but TV losses were a fearsome thing mere 3 years ago. Today, TV station of any kind looks good. Copyright 1951 by Radio News Bureau